Rebuilding My Garden After the City Tore It Up | Week 1: Hardscaping

The garden rebuild begins! After a city storm drain project tore up over 160 feet of my gardens, I’m starting the long process of putting everything back together—and making some changes along the way. For Week 1, I’m focusing on the backyard hardscaping. I’m rebuilding a curved rock wall using many of the rocks that were dug up during construction, and I’m reshaping my flagstone path. This is definitely a DIY project. The rocks are irregular, the flagstones are all different thicknesses, and fitting them together is basically a very heavy jigsaw puzzle! I’m trying to use as much of what I already have as possible. I’ll also share some of the planting plans I’m dreaming up for this area, including hydrangeas, hostas, Japanese ferns, bigroot geraniums, a Japanese maple, and more. The best part? I’m hoping to use mostly plants I already own. My goal is to document the progress each week as this garden slowly comes back to life. If you'd like to follow the entire transformation, I'll be adding each episode to a Side Garden Redo playlist, including the original garden tour, the video right after I learned about the storm drain project, and the rebuilding process. Thanks for joining me for the beginning of this garden adventure! 0:00 - Incorporating Boulders into a Curved Rock Wall 5:47 - Cutting the Edges the Flagstone Path 9:40 - Why I am Reshaping the Path 15:08 - Putting Together a Very Heavy Stone Jigsaw Puzzle 24:54 - Filling a Hole and Setting Flagstones in Place 32:42 - Spreading Some Compost 36:32 - Casting a Vision for the Future Garden: Plant Selections!